GAYA KEPIMPINAN JURULATIH YANG DIMINATI ATLET-ATLET SEKOLAH MENENGAH DI MALAYSIA BERASASKAN JANTINA DAN BANGSA

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the coaches’ leadership style favored by secondary school athletes in Malaysia based on gender and race. A total of 162 secondary school athletes aged between 13 and 16 years who had at least represented their school in sports competitions and games were selected by purposive sampling. The Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS) Questionnaire by Chelladurai and Saleh (1980) was used to identify the preferred leadership style of coaches at the secondary school level based on gender and race differences. The results show that secondary school male athletes favored the positive feedback dimensions of leadership style, followed by the dimensions of training and instruction, the democratic dimension and social support dimension; the least favored was the autocratic dimension of leadership. Similarly, secondary school female athletes favored the positive feedback dimensions of leadership style, followed by the dimensions of training and instruction, the democratic dimension, social support dimension and the least favored was the autocratic dimension of leadership. The results showed no significant differences between Malay, Chinese and Indian athletes who favored the positive feedback dimensions of leadership style, dimensions of training and instruction, the democratic dimension, social support dimension and the least favored was the autocratic dimension. The single Siamese athlete however, favored the training and instruction dimension of leadership style, followed by the dimension of positive feedback, democratic dimension, social support dimension and the least favored autocratic dimension of leadership. The independent t test showed a significant gender difference in the dimension style of positive feedback and autocratic, with p < .05. The One Way ANOVA showed no significant difference between the different races in all dimensions of leadership style, with p > .05. This research has revealed that positive feedback leadership style is preferred by secondary school athletes based on gender. Some recommendations and suggestions for further studies are given.